Scientology critic won't face retrial

Prosecutors decide to drop a marijuana charge after jurors, concerned
about
church influence, deadlock

St. Petersburg Times/May 26, 2001
By Deborah O'Neil

Clearwater -- When the two-day misdemeanor trial of Scientology critic
Jesse
Prince ended Thursday, jurors had little doubt he had possessed
marijuana as
the state charged.

What bothered some of them, according to two jurors, was the
possibility
that Prince had been set up by the Church of Scientology.

They heard testimony about how Prince, once a high-ranking church
member,
was watched, videotaped and trailed for months by private investigators
hired by Scientology lawyers.

Private investigator Barry Gaston said he was hired because he is
black,
like Prince, and befriended Prince using a false name. Gaston said he
was
paid $14,000 for his work.

Ultimately, the private investigators gave police information that led
to
Prince's arrest.
In his closing arguments Prince's lawyer Denis deVlaming hammered home
a
point that would stick in some jurors minds.

"A real church is a house of God," deVlaming said. "You tell me what
house
of God hires somebody like Gaston to be able to infiltrate a life?"
The jurors deadlocked after five hours of deliberations and a mistrial
was
declared. On Friday, the State Attorney's Office dropped the charge
against
Prince, capping a bizarre case that, in the end, left the church
explaining
its tactics.

"We've made the decision not to retry Mr. Prince," said prosecutor
Lydia
Wardell on Friday. "It was just time that we decided we'd spent enough
time
and energy and money on this particular charge."
Nothing about the state's case was questioned, she noted.

Wardell put Prince's own fiancee, Deneen Phillips, on the stand. She
testified under a court subpoena that Prince knew there was a marijuana
plant on their back porch and that they had smoked pot together.
Still, the jury did not convict.

"I knew I was going to have a very hard time based solely on the fact
that
Scientology hired the firm that hired the investigators," Wardell said.
"We
all know it came down to that."

Juror Tiffany Scurlock of Palm Harbor said she and other jurors felt
Prince
was probably guilty of the charges, but, "I think a lot of it had to do
with
entrapment. They (other jurors) felt like the Church of Scientology had
a
lot to do with setting him up."

Mike Rinder, a top Scientology official, said the case became trial by
innuendo and deVlaming effectively deflected attention from the
critical
issue: Prince's drug possession. If the jurors were concerned with
Scientology's role, Rinder said, "it's just a matter of prejudice."

The church, he said, investigated Prince because he is being paid to
testify
against the church in a civil lawsuit and has told outrageous lies
about the
church under oath. Also, Rinder said, investigators have watched Prince
because he has a history of making violent threats against church
members.

Rinder argued that the church merely reported Prince's illegal
activities to
law enforcement.
"When it comes to someone who is anti-Scientology it seems there's a
double
standard," Rinder said. "We have to go around and document every bit of
it
and put it all together. Then it turns into, "The church did it.' If
the
allegation were being made about someone in the church, the police
would be
doing the investigation themselves."

Rinder said he wasn't surprised the charges were dropped, given the
expensive defense.
Prince's defense cost an estimated $45,000, said Stacy Brooks,
president of
the Lisa McPherson Trust, a Scientology watchdog organization in
downtown
Clearwater where Prince works. The Trust, which is funded mostly with
money
from millionaire Scientology critic Robert Minton, paid Prince's legal
bills, she said.

The case was the third time in a year a member of the Lisa McPherson
trust
has been on trial for misdemeanor criminal charges in cases that
involve the
Church of Scientology. DeVlaming represented all three, and none were
convicted. In all, the trust has spent close to $150,000 in legal fees,
Brooks said.

"The reason Jesse and Bob and I wanted this to go to trial is we wanted
the
information to be made public that Scientology does this to people,"
said
Brooks.
For his part, Prince said: "The thing that's most important to me that
happened in this case is we stood up and fought it."

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